A British Army soldier who became a member of a banned neo-Nazi group stockpiled daggers and machetes to prepare for a “race war”, a court heard.

Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 33, is accused of belonging to National Action and being “personally committed to the use of violence in pursuit of the organisation’s aims”.

Birmingham crown court heard yesterday that he kept a manual written by the mass murderer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in two attacks in Norway in 2011. When the soldier turned fitness instructor was arrested, police discovered a “crudely made” electromagnetic pulse device at his home in Brecon, Wales, on September 5 last year, the court heard.